How many times have you heard skeptics ask about the ephemeral Business Case for IPv6? How many times did you ask yourself that question? Even if you are one of its cheerleaders, there are those lonely, rainy nights when you doubt and wonder. The pressure did come off a bit lately. By now we all know there is no way around it so that might be a business case in itself. But then … does it matter? Who cares?

Everyone will soon care.

Picture this nightmare: It is April 15. Yeah, that April 15, the IRS day. You procrastinated (much like many organizations who should have moved to IPv6 by now) and you are ready to do what it takes to file by the deadline. You are ready in your tax filing sweat pants and head band, the pile of supporting papers is to your right on the desk, a gallon of coffee to your left, it is game time! Now all you need is the forms.

The Facebook lover, twitter savvy, Google master you sees no problem. You confidently type in your browser: www.irs.gov and … you wait, and wait … and wait some more. Odd but, it must be crowded you say. You get to the forms and start the download. The progress bar is barely moving while the clock on the wall seems to have learned about the theory of relativity and is racing to deadline. You keep your cool. You smash a few knickknacks from your desk. You sob like a baby but the download is still dragging. Pride be damned, you call a friend and … what do you know? He has no problem downloading the forms, many times over. You suspect he might be doing it even for fun at your expense.

What in the IRS World is going on?

You my friend are accessing the IRS website over IPv6 and the IRS webpage is only 61% effective over IPv6. Here is the proof, the blue line in the graph bellow shows the Global IPv6 Effectiveness of www.irs.gov on April 22 as measured by v6Sonar (the only superhero APM in the IPv6 space: www.v6sonar.com).

OK, so the nightmare scenario happened a few days before April 15 but … it did happen!

Morals of the story:

1) IPv6 does matter and it might be your Ironman (just to stay actual) or your Freddy

2) Dear IRS, don’t take the OMB mandate for granted. Not even you can just wave a magic wand and think IPv6 will just work well. You have to work for it like everyone else.